We Do What They Can't
by NephilimEQ
Summary: Parker and Eliot seem so different...but they are alike in the one thing that matters most.
1. Not Alone

**Chapter 1 - Not Alone**

"Hey," Eliot said, practically whispering, but still catching Parker's attention with the light on her face. "It's a good thing it was us."

She felt her heart sink a little at that.

"Because we'd leave him…"

The light wobbled a bit, but he spoke up in response to comment.

"Because they would've kept trying and they would've froze to death right next to him, _especially_ Hardison, so it was a _good_ thing it was us." He paused a moment, the two of them locking eyes firmly, and he finished by saying, "The two of us…we do things they can't. Won't."

Parker nodded, but then asked,

"That make us bad?"

He was silent for a moment and then said, "It makes us…us."

Eliot paused again, obviously carefully choosing his next words, and then finally continued.

"Now, you can take that as a gift, or you can take it as a curse…" He shined the light back onto her face and then dropped it, giving her an inscrutable look. "That's up to you."

He then stood and walked over to the rope that was dangling from the top of the fissure, and she watched him for a moment before following. Now that she thought about that way, she understood that she wasn't a bad person…that _he_ wasn't a bad person. They were simply who they were.

And in that moment, she found she had more in common with Eliot then she did with anyone else on the team.

Both of them had done things that they weren't proud of. Done things that would make anyone else shy away from them for fear of what they were capable of.

She remembered the time that she had been certain that Tara had gone behind their back and was selling them out.

She remembered how she'd grabbed the woman by the throat and then threatened to throw her off the top of the building. And she also remembered how later on, Tara had said that Parker had worried her because she thought she was actually going to drop her. Parker had tried, and failed probably, to laugh it off, as though she'd never do such a thing…but of course, it wasn't the truth.

She would have dropped her in an instant. She would have done everything in her power to protect the team.

Though it hadn't bothered her at the time, as she spent more time with the team, she thought something might be wrong with her.

Anyone else might have tried to talk to her, to reason with her…except for Eliot.

And that thought, though it was somewhat morbid and dark, reassured her. Calmed her. Let her know that she was not alone.

She had Eliot on her side.

* * *

**Part 1/?**


	2. Make the Call

**Chapter 2 - Make the Call**

Parker could barely believe what was happening. Their job had gone completely south, and now she and Eliot were stuck in an office near the center of the building. No windows, one door with a one way keypad (not on their side), and no vents big enough for her, let alone Eliot, to get through.

She could hear the argument going on over the ear pieces, while she continued to try to figure something out.

"_We have to get them out of there, Nate,"_ said Hardison, his tone anxious. _"They have less than three minutes before the guards find them."_

"_I'm thinking, Hardison, I'm thinking!" _Nate yelled back, and Parker felt a headache start to form just behind her eyes.

Eliot spoke up.

"Look, you guys, we got the information to you already, and neither Parker nor I could understand any of it. That means we simply have to get out of this room without being caught, right?"

"_Yes, that's right,"_ said Sophie, her tone anxious as well.

Eliot looked at Parker, a certain expression on his face…and she recognized it from the mountain job that they'd had, stuck under the ice.

_We do things they can't. Won't._

She suddenly knew what he was going to suggest, and she knew that he was right, so Parker spoke up.

"Guys, the two of us, Eliot and I, because we don't actually _know_ what's on the files we gave you, if they caught us, we couldn't tell them anything…so..." Eliot gave her an approving nod, glad that she had understood what she meant.

Hardison, however, immediately understood what she was saying and vehemently protested.

"_No, no, no, Parker…we _will_ find a way out for you guys! Just give me some time!"_

The blonde thief shook her head.

"We're down to eighty seconds, Hardison…" She looked back over to Eliot and he nodded again. "…we're staying."

She heard both Hardison and Sophie start to protest, and Eliot cut them off.

"Look, guys! We don't have a choice. We're staying."

Again, the two of them started to protest once more, but then Nate's voice covered both of theirs as he simply said,

"Understood."

And with that, it went silent on the comms.

Eliot looked at her and she knew what the look meant. In nearly the same instant, they both pulled out their ear pieces, threw them to the ground, and then stepped on them, knowing that if they were found with them, their soon-to-be captors would know that they had a bigger team than just two people.

The both heard the faint beep of the buttons on the other side of the door being pressed.

They shared one last look, and then the door opened…

* * *

**Part 2/?**


	3. We Can Handle It

**Chapter 3 - We Can Handle It**

The two of them were now in handcuffs, and were taken down to the local police station, the entire time both of them were thinking of ways that they could get out of it.

If Parker had been by herself, she simply would have adjusted her wrist, pulled one of her hands out of the metal bracelets, and then would have gone through the air vents until she reached the roof and then jumped down (it was only one story), and then hotwired the closet vehicle she could find.

However, as it stood, she was with Eliot, and she wasn't going to abandon him. They were a team.

Eliot, too, was going through what he would have done had he been alone.

Three men, all police guards, none of them truly experienced, easy enough to dispatch...though he didn't _like_ to hit cops, he'd do it when necessary. Take them out, snap his cuffs, and then hotwire the closest vehicle he could find.

However, he, too, was not going to leave his partner behind. If he had been caught with anyone else on the team, he wasn't entirely sure that he would have the same reaction…Parker was different than anyone else on the team.

She was like him. Fiercely independent, incredibly private, and emotionally distant.

No one else on the team seemed to really understand her…but he did. Of course, he didn't broadcast to the world that he knew what she was going through, but just from the looks they shared sometimes, she knew that he understood and he knew that she understood.

As of that moment, they were being hauled into the station none too gently by the arresting officers.

"Sir, we caught them on the premises of the Hishomara building just downtown."

The chief, Chief Payton said the nametag, motioned towards the back rooms. "Put them into interrogation room one. Cuffs off."

One of their officers looked confused.

"Sir…? You want them both in one room? Without cuffs? Isn't that-?"

He was cut off by a cold glance from his superior officer. "Isn't that what I just said, Officer Carrow? Now, if you're done wasting my time, I believe I told you to do something…so _do_ it." With that harsh dismissal, the chief left and headed to his private office.

Parker and Eliot exchanged a glance and Eliot watched as one of her eyebrows went up, and he could read her look.

It was one that said, _At least we won't get separated._

He just nodded slightly, and was patient as the two of them were led into the room.

However, they both reacted as soon as the door closed as they saw two very familiar tiny objects sitting on the table in the middle of the room. Eliot gave Parker a look, and then they both stepped forward and grabbed the ear buds and put them in.

"_Hey…look who we have here,"_ said Hardison's annoying voice into both of their ears. _"Mr. and Mrs. Selfless Heroes…now, what the _hell_ were you thinking? Oh, and by the way, you owe me two new comms."_

They both winced at the Hacker's tone, but then Nate came on.

"_Hey, it was their call and it was the _right _call…"_

Parker finally spoke up, confused by what was going on. "Okay, how the hell did you get these in here? We were, like, _just_ arrested!"

Both she and Eliot could practically hear Hardison smirking as he responded. _"Okay, that really wasn't all that hard, you see. We knew that the local PD would be the ones to arrive on the scene, so I simply got the address of their office and-"_

Nate interrupted.

"_And Detective Bonano knows the Chief, so I had him pull in a favor. Now, do you want to get out of here or not?"_

Eliot's arms crossed his chest, and he looked at the reflective glass on the one side of the wall, and he darkly wondered who was on the other side and if he could get to them in time if they decided to go and snitch on them.

But then Hardison said…

"_Oh, and there's no one in that little room next door, so you don't need to worry about being overheard."_

The Hitter then looked over at the blonde thief and rolled his eyes slightly, and she returned the look.

It seemed that no one on the team trusted them to be able to take care of themselves. In fact, out of everyone on the team, Eliot and Parker were the most adept at getting out of tight spots, and both of them were resenting the idea that they needed assistance.

Eliot finally spoke up, having been silent the whole time.

"Okay, look. We appreciate you trying to help, but I'm pretty sure we can handle it on our own."

He looked over at Parker, and she nodded. Eliot then continued. "Okay, now look. I don't like hitting cops, but in this case, I'll make an exception. I can easily get us through the cops and out the front door, and all I'd have to do is a little hotwiring, and we'd be out…"

Parker looked over at him, a small smile on her face.

"Really? That was pretty much my plan…except for the hitting cops part. I was going to take the vents to the roof, jump off, and _then_ steal a car."

He grinned a little, and then Sophie came on.

"_Alright, all this talk is getting us nowhere, people. Now, you have the endgame, it seems: steal a car, but neither of your ways is going to get you out without them trying to track you down again. Now, the only favor Bonano was able to pull was getting you the comms…luckily, Chief Payton doesn't know what they are. You're going to need to-"_

Eliot cut her off.

"Yeah, yeah…grift our way out, got it. In fact…" He reached into a hidden, inside coat pocket and grinned. "Yeah…this'll work just perfectly."

* * *

**Part 3/?**


	4. We Get It Done

**Chapter 4 - We Get It Done**

They sat down and were soon greeted by their arresting officer, Officer Carrow.

He sat down across from them at the table, and Eliot could tell that he was relatively new to the force, which would make him a much easier mark.

"You two were caught trespassing in the private offices of Daniel Heller," he said, his hands almost shaking as went through the papers in front of him. "We found certain files were missing from Mr. Heller's private safe. He has not yet been notified, but will be shortly."

Eliot immediately saw his chance.

"How long did it take you to get to the building?" he asked the officer, throwing the young man off guard with his confident tone and his arms crossed defensively across his chest.

Carrow stuttered. "Uh, t-ten, e-eleven minutes."

Eliot looked over at Parker, who was sitting in her chair sideways, her legs crossed, and gave her a look, which she returned with a slight roll of her eyes and the comment, "Slow. It should have only been…what, eight minutes response time? Tops?"

Eliot nodded, and then watched in amusement as Carrow's expression turned to one of confusion.

"Uh…what are you talking about?"

This was it, he was about to reach into his jacket pocket, but was distracted by Sophie talking in his ear.

"_Alright, now don't forget to _under_sell the part. If you oversell it, they'll insist on you staying and filling out reports, but as long as you give them just enough to-"_

Eliot, pissed off at being interrupted, pulled out the earpiece and decided to use it to sell his bit.

"Officer Carrow," he said, looking the young man in the eye and reaching inside his coat and pulling out a badge. "I'm with the Marshall Service, and you are the first person to be informed that your unit has just failed to pass the most basic test."

At this, he saw a look of panic cross Carrow's face, so he continued.

Motioning to Parker, he said, "I am Federal Marshall Chris Kane, and this is my assistant, Beth Reese, who is with a special company, that will remain anonymous, that deals with finding weak spots in security and law enforcement."

The young officer stared at them, not sure of what to think, so the Hitter continued to speak.

"We were hired by Mr. Heller, himself, to see what kind of response time your unit has to these types of high-security break-ins. And it saddens me to say that you are not performing up to the level as was expected. Due to this, we're going to have to mark you down."

Finally, Officer Carrow reacted.

"Wait, wait…mark us down? The whole unit?"

Eliot nodded, a grim look on his face.

"I'm afraid so."

He then turned his glance over to Parker, who gladly took over, she, too, also taking her ear bud out, obviously annoyed by having Sophie in her ear.

Parker started in. "Not only was your response time lax, but the security that you provided for the building was minimal. It took me little to no effort to bypass the guards, as well as video cameras and pathetically out of date motion sensors."

She gave him a crocodile smile and then motioned towards the glass behind him.

"Is anyone in the other room, Officer Carrow?"

He shook his head.

At this point, Eliot took back over. "Well, in that case, we can overlook this as simply being a trial run, and keep it off the books to your superior officers. But now that you know, we'll expect you to get us out of here with as little fuss as possible. Are we clear?"

As he spoke, both he and Parker put their ear buds back in, the officer looking confused once more.

"Uh, what are you…?"

Eliot gave him a grin similar to Parker's. "Miss Reese and I were hired by Mr. Heller, Officer Carrow…we've been keeping him up to date, of course." He then turned slightly, pressing his ear bud slightly for the effect. "Mr. Heller, we did exactly as you _personally_ requested…and, according to us, they did just fine."

He gave their arresting and interrogating officer a sly grin, and he saw the young man's look of relief, but then had to listen to Hardison complain.

"_Dammit, Eliot! Do you not know how hard it is to fake phone calls and e-mails with this guy's security? I swear, you get back here alive and _not _in jail, I'm going to kill you!"_

Eliot just grinned and glanced over at Parker to see that she was grinning as well.

As soon as they stepped back out into the bullpen, they were surprised to see Officer Carrow handle himself very professionally and were slightly impressed at how he handled the situation.

"Chief Payton, there has been a misunderstanding." The chief gave him a look, and Carrow continued. "These two here were hired by Mr. Heller to check his _building's_ security, and he simply forgot to notify us of the fact. Mr. Kane is a federal Marshall, and Miss Reese is his…assistant. They were _personally_ hired."

The chief looked skeptical, and gave the two a look.

"Personally hired, huh?"

Carrow nodded, and the chief gave them a look. "We'll need to make sure of that."

He motioned to one of his agents, who immediately got onto a nearby computer and pulled up what they could see were Heller's personal phone records. Yep…there were their names. Chris Kane and Beth Reese, both with Washington, D.C. area codes. They then watched as he pulled up the man's e-mail records as well…and there they were again.

It seemed to be legitimate.

Chief Payton gave the two of them a scrutinizing look, and then nodded.

"Fine, they can go."

With that, Parker and Eliot stepped out into broad daylight and walked down the road a ways until they stopped just out of view of the station.

Parker turned to Eliot and then said something unexpected…

"Thanks for that back there, Eliot. I mean, I usually can't grift worth crap, but you gave me something I knew I could work with. Sophie would've had me play coy and sexy secretary, Nate would've tried to convince me to be some sort of CEO type person, but you…you just expected me to work with what I know."

Eliot shrugged, not sure how to react to her thanks.

"Yeah, well…I know you have trouble with the grift, so I gave you something you know. I mean," he further explained, "That's all I ever do. Work off what I know."

She looked slightly surprised to hear this, and tilted her head in that certain way of hers.

"Really? Just stuff you know?"

He gave her a chagrined look. "Yeah, just stuff I know. Which includes the military, fighting, cooking, and horses," he said, ticking them off on his fingers.

"Don't forget singing and guitar," she added, an odd look on her face.

At hearing this, however, Eliot was surprised. He didn't even think that she really remembered that con, and it had never occurred to him that those two aspects of his life would be included as part of those things that he could use…but she was right. He _had_ used them in the past, and they _had_ helped him.

"Yeah, whatever," he said, shrugging it off.

He then noticed that she had already begun to look around for cars to lift, and saw her eyes light upon a nearly brand new Jaguar.

"How 'bout that one?"

He turned his head slightly and then grinned. "Or we could take _that_ one…"

Parker saw where he was pointing and huge grin stretched across her face at what she saw.

"Oh, how well you know me, Eliot…"

* * *

**Part 4/?**


	5. Under Close Observation

**Chapter 5 - Under Close Observation**

"A motorcycle? You stole a damn _motorcycle?_" asked Hardison, incredulity on his face as he saw them pull up to the warehouse that the team had set up in.

Eliot simply shrugged, a grin at the corner of his mouth, obviously not disturbed by the fact…in fact, he almost seemed to be amused by the Hacker's discomfort.

He tossed the keys back to Parker and watched as she put them into the pocket of his leather coat, which she'd taken from him for the drive over and was now wearing. It had been a bit cold out, and she'd only been wearing a t-shirt, so he'd loaned it to her. It looked good.

He took a moment to appraise how the leather fit her, and was surprised to find, that even though it was a bit large on her, it looked almost…hot.

At that point, however, Hardison turned to Parker, the look of incredulity still plastered on his face. He then gestured wildly towards the motorcycle and towards Eliot, and then he finally spluttered out, "And you just _let_ him drive you?"

Parker just grinned, much in the same way Eliot just had.

"No, of course not…" she said, a smirk at the corner of her lips. "He asked me nicely, first."

She then sauntered past him, sharing an amused look with Eliot behind the Hacker's back as they walked into the building.

However, as soon as they were in, Hardison's demeanor quickly became serious. After shutting the large hangar-type doors behind them, he motioned for the two of them to sit on the old couch that the team had scrounged up from another nearby warehouse and then directed their attention to the various monitors that he had set up in the room.

"Alright, the documents you gave us told us a bit more than we realized…"

He scanned over to some of the newly imported information.

"Alright, now Daniel Raymond Heller, age 42, is not only the founder of a fake bank, but he's also the founder of a shell company through which he's been siphoning his clients' money, unbeknownst to them."

At this point, Nate spoke up.

"What's different about this, though, is _how_ he's doing this…somehow he's managed to use his very own _personal_ bank account, in the Caiman's mind you," he added as a side note, "To look like a bank unto itself, and each time a client supposedly opened an account with his 'bank', he put the money into a portioned section of his account, making it look like their money was secure."

He then pointed to a photo up on the screen.

"Daniel Heller has then been taking their money and putting it into _this_ company_,_" he motioned towards the photo. "Greenfield Associates."

Sophie finally spoke up from where she'd been sitting at their makeshift kitchen area.

"Greenfield Associates is supposedly an investment firm that can double, or even triple its clients' money by putting their money in "special" growing assets." She paused and took a sip of the tea in front of her. "And I must say, though they're a fake company, they have _excellent_ PR…"

Her voice trailed off, and Hardison picked it back up.

"Now, even _I_ had a hard time distinguishing the fact that it was a fake company…"

He pulled up more images, specifically screen captures, up onto the screen.

"Names, personal contact information, legitimate numbers that their clients can call, a _real facility_ that you can actually take a _tour_ of…this guy is good, and he has a _lot_ of money. Why he needs to keep on stealing other people's money, I don't know. As far as I can tell, he's never needed it." He pulled up some more photos. "He was born in Martha's Vineyard to George and Mariah Heller, went to private school, then onto Princeton. Average marks, but high ambitions and well-connected enough to build a real company. He got his inheritance at age twenty-five, and then left home and never looked back."

Eliot took a look at it, but then decided to bring up what he'd seen at the police station that had bothered him.

"Hey, Hardison…you said Heller's e-mail and phone records were tightly secured, right?"

Hardison nodded.

"Like Fort Knox during a terrorist takeover, yeah. He's got one of the newest systems out there, a Timmoran XR…"

Eliot sat there for a long moment, silently thinking it over, but then finally said, "If they're that secure, how'd the local PD get their hands on them? It looked to me like they were linked straight into his system."

At this, the Hacker looked slightly confused.

"Straight into his system? No, no, no. It's not possible." He then explained. "You see, the only way for them to be hooked straight into his system, is if they had security clearance to gain access to his personal records, and the only reason that they would be allowed to get security clearance would be if they're investigating him, but they're not and they've got no reason to, so it's not-"

Nate cut him off.

"Unless they do have a reason to."

He stood and walked over to the screen, and then Parker, who had remained silent, suddenly lit up in understanding.

"Wait…you think they found something on Heller? Like we did?"

Nate nodded, and Sophie seemed to have a look of understanding as well. Nate then said, "I think our friends in law enforcement might have discovered Greenfield Associates and are looking into Mr. Heller's possible contacts…"

He then turned and looked at Eliot and Parker.

"…and now that Chief Payton thinks that a Federal Marshall and someone in international security are involved, I have a feeling that he's going to be even more interested…"

He left it hanging, but both Eliot and Parker knew what it meant.

Payton was going to be coming after them.

* * *

**Part 5/?**


End file.
